International Women's Day at St Austell Brewery with Film, Discussion Panel, Speak Outs and Music

3/8/2019

Location: Bodmin, Cornwall
Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls
Videographer: Rob Nicholls

Happy International Women's Day! International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March every year. It is a focal point in the movement for women's rights.

International Women's Day 2019 campaign theme: #BalanceforBetter
The future is exciting. Let's build a gender-balanced world. Everyone has a part to play - all the time, everywhere. From grassroots activism to worldwide action, we are entering an exciting period of history where the world expects balance. We notice its absence and celebrate its presence. Balance drives a better working world. Let's all help create a #BalanceforBetter.

After the Socialist Party of America organized a Women's Day on 28 February 1909 in New York, German revolutionary Clara Zetkin proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman's Conference that 8 March be honored as a day annually in memory of working women. The day has been celebrated as International Women's Day or International Working Women's Day ever since. After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1975.

Commemoration of International Women's Day today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.